INTRODUCTION

Communication Scientists all over the world were in an incessant search of a wideband and lowloss medium of data communication which could be used at high data rates with the least amount
of lost possible. This constant search, for such a medium, led to development of optical fiber
communication.
HISTORY
The first revolution in the field of communication came when Sir Alexander Graham Bell
successfully converted voice signals into electrical signals which were transmitted on electrical
wires and then converted back to voice signals. This was the major break-through in the field of
communication. Right from this time there has been a continuously increasing need of
bandwidth for communication due to continuously increasing number of users. More people
wanted to communicate and thus large bandwidths were required thereby forcing communication
scientists to look for new possibilities. This increasing trend, of need of large bandwidths, even
continues today.
ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM

Initial communications started at lower operating frequencies of about 30MHz. The bandwidths
then required were also low. Since then the operating frequencies have drastically increased due
to large requirements in bandwidths. Let us take a look into the electromagnetic spectrum to get
an idea of our discussion.
The medium of transmission that were used for operating frequencies upto about 1GHz were
coaxial cables in which there was a centre conductor surrounded by a layer of dielectric material
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and the dielectric material was surrounded by outer metallic layer. The electromagnetic energy
travelled, along the lengths of these cables and was confined in between the two metallic layers.
These cables had a loss figure of about 20db/km. When operating frequencies increased further
the coaxial cables proved to be inadequate and lossy, thereby giving rise to the need of another
medium called waveguides. These are basically hollow structures which guide the
electromagnetic energy from one point to another through them. But as the operating frequency
further increased to few hundreds of gigahertz these waveguides too proved to be inadequate as
there were no supporting electronic circuitry available that could operate at such high
frequencies. The reason behind this was that at such high frequencies, even the size of the
electronic component started to show some variations in the circuit behavior and the electronic
components could no longer be treated as lumped elements. Hence this led to a strong need of a
search for other alternatives because though there seemed to have appeared a halt in the available
technology, but there did not appear any halt in the ever increasing demand for bandwidth.
Scientist all over the world started to explore new possibilities and looked in the optical domain
which was already being used in laboratory experiments. The idea was that, if the already wellestablished relationship between bandwidth (BW) and operating frequency (f0) held good at
optical frequencies then we would emerge with a new option for communication that would
increase the existing bandwidth by 1000 to 10,000 times. Thorough investigations showed that
optical domain had the potentiality to be used for communication. Two very obvious questions
then come to the mind that whether or not there are transmitters and receivers available for this
new communication technology and the second question as to whether or not there exists such a
wideband and loss-less medium for carrying optical signals.
On the very first look, both the questions seem trivial. This is because we already have a lot of
sources of light in our day to day life, for e.g. incandescent bulbs, gas bulbs, LEDs, fluorescent
lamps, etc. Then why worry about sources? Similarly, the second question also has a very
obvious answer. The bright light from the sun, that is millions of light-years away from us,
reaches us, even through vacuum (in space) and also the earths atmosphere. Thus air seems to
be a very efficient medium for light propagation. Then why need a special medium for optical
signals? But though the questions seem simple to be answered, they are not so.
A normal incandescent bulb emits light in all directions. If we keep an incandescent bulb
glowing on the roof -top and slowly move away from it, we will see its glow from even a
kilometer or may be 10Km. But if we go beyond that we will observe its brightness fade away
and after some distance it practically becomes invisible from view. Thus we see that though we
feel that the air is a very efficient medium of light, its efficiency reduces to zero after a few
kilometers. Hence we cannot accept air medium as we earlier thought, because in the field of
communication we do not talk about only a hundred kilometers but about thousands of
kilometers. Thus this notion incurs the need for special medium to carry light over such long
distances. With this need in mind the next option in the list was glass which also appeared to be a
very transparent medium and was perhaps already put to use in laboratory experiments to carry
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light. Physicists have already been using glass in the form of prisms or lenses for guiding and
focusing lights in different experiments in the laboratories. However, when glass was used in the
laboratory for guiding or focusing light, we again here are talking about distances which may be
of the order of few meters only, over which the light was carried. And whatever loss glass has,
it is reasonably small over such small distances. So the question is that if glass is used as a
medium to carry light over the distances that are required for communication will it provide a
low-loss medium and also satisfy the requirements of a reliable communication? A yes would
have eased job already. But unfortunately the answer to this question is no. The reason for such
disappointment is that when experiments were carried out over the loss characteristics of glass, it
was found that glass had a very high attenuation of about 1000 dB/Km. Thus glass, which
appears to be so transparent to us, is practically not so. This means that if light is sent over a
glass rod then it would attenuate by 1000 dB over a distance of just 1 Km. So on the first look,
glass seemed to be very inefficient in being used as a medium for optical communications
though it served the requirements of laboratory experiments.
But deep study and
experimentations on the nature of glass brought a very interesting notion to the scientists that, the
loss figure of 1000 dB/Km of glass was not due to the intrinsic nature of glass. Or in other
words, high loss was not a characteristic of glass as a substance and was not because of the glass
molecules. In fact, the loss was due to the impurities present in the glass. These impurities were
not removed from the laboratory-used glass prisms and lenses because their presence did not
bring any error in the measurements. As soon as this was realized, glass began to be
manufactured to the best possible purity with the best possible available manufacturing
technology in the early 60s. On the first purification, glass that was manufactured had a loss
figure of about 20dB/Km. Although this loss today still seems to be large, but in those times it
was comparable to the other already available communication mediums like waveguides and
coaxial cables. That is to say, if we used a purified glass rod as a communication medium it
would provide almost the same loss (of about a factor of 100) as would a coaxial cable or a
waveguide too would do, but at bandwidths 1000 to 10000 times larger than them. Thus it
attracted scientists to explore this new medium further. Perhaps, this was the reason for moulding
glass into the form of fibers (called optical fibers) that are used for optical communication today.
The second question now to be answered was about the availability of a source of light.
Superficially, this is a very simple question to be even answered. This triviality is because we see
so many different sources of light in our day-to-day life that they seem almost omnipresent. For
example, incandescent bulbs, tube lights, fluorescent lights etc. The question now is, whether
or not an ordinary electric bulb can be used to carry or transmit information. Carrier signal in a
communication system carries information by virtue of a variation in one or more of its
characteristics like amplitude, frequency or time period. Thus if we have a source whose
amplitude and frequency do not change with time, this source cannot be used to carry
information. If we want to use the electric bulb as a source we need to change the amplitude or
the frequency (or both) of the light emitted by it. The question now, is how difficult it is to do so.
Investigations showed that the rate at which an electric bulb can be switched ON and OFF, in
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accordance with the information signal, is not fast enough. In other words, the frequency of
operation can only be upto a few cycles. Clearly then, if we want our bandwidths to be large,
these bulbs and tube lights are not suitable sources.
The rate at which an optical signal source can be turned ON and OFF depends on the spectral
width of the source. This means, if we investigate a source which has a very large spectral width
(say for example, white light) we would find that this source has very small operating frequency.
In other words, in order to have a source which can be operated at optical signal frequencies its
spectral width should be as narrow as possible.
Co-incidentally enough, LASERs happened to be invented almost during the same time as the
search for narrow spectral sources was in progress. LASERs happened to have sufficiently
narrow spectral widths and high beam directivity, adequate to be used as optical signal sources.
Initial LASERs emitted lights of wavelengths of about 800 nm. And so, initial optical
communications started with 800 nm wavelength due to which it was called the First Optical
Window of optical communication.
The above discussion, hence, gives a very brief introduction to a very interesting and fascinating
communication technology called the Optical Communication. With this backdrop of
information, the next obvious query would be concerning the structure of an optical
communication link. An optical communication link is no different from any other
communication links. It too has the three basic modules transmitter, receiver and the channel or
medium of communication. A typical optical communication link is shown in figure 1.2

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The electrical signal, which may be audio, video or any data signal, is fed into the transmitter
module as input to a driver circuitry. The internal circuitry of the transmitter module converts
the data signal from the electrical domain to a compatible optical domain and this optical signal
is then transmitted. This signal then travels through the optical medium which is optical fiber. In
order to recover the optical data signal from the attenuated signal on the fiber, repeaters are
provided to ensure high SNR at the output. This regenerated (recovered) signal is then
retransmitted through the fiber to reach the receiver module in the best possible form and in the
lowest possible time. The receiver module detects (receives) the transmitted signal in the optical
domain and then converts it back into the original electrical signal to reach the intended
destination.
If we take transmission media into consideration, we invariably have the following basic
transmission media: Twisted pair, Coaxial Cable and Waveguides.
TWISTED PAIR (point-to-point)

Fig. 1.3: Twisted pair

-mechanically twisted along throughout their length.
-used at low operating frequencies such as in telephone lines.
-low date rates of about few tens of Kbps
-very high electromagnetic interference (EMI).
-extremely lossy at radio frequencies (RF).
COAXIAL CABLE (point-to-point)

Fig. 1.4: Coaxial Cable

-electromagnetic energy propagates between the two conductors along the length of the wires.
-used within a frequency range of about 30 MHz 3 GHz.
-low electromagnetic interference and show moderate loss,
-their bandwidths are low
-data rates are only upto a few Mbps.
-used as Local Area Network (LAN) cables, Television channel distribution cable, laboratory
microwave experiments, etc.
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MICROWAVE LINK (point-to-point)

Fig. 1.5: Microwave Link

-large bandwidths of about a few hundred Megahertz
-used for long distance communication.
-line-of-sight communication.
-very high free-space
SATELLITE COMMUNICATION (point-multipoint)

Fig. 1.6: Satellite Communication

- point-to-multipoint type link.
-used in broadcast applications like radio television broadcasts.
-operates on microwave frequencies and hence has large bandwidths of about few Gigahertz.
-data monitoring capability
-large delays in signal transmissions
-allows the user to be mobile within the area of electromagnetic illumination by the satellite.
Satellite Communication
Point-to-multipoint technology
Bandwidth ~ GHz
Maintenance-Free
Short Life (7 to 8 Years)
No Upgradeability
Has Mobility capability. User can be mobile, may be on land,
in water or air.

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Fiber Optics
Point-to-point technology
Bandwidth ~ THz
Needs Maintenance
Long Life
Upgradeable
No mobility.

History of Attenuation graph

The search for a medium for transmission of light over long distances led the scientist to
investigate glass which was already in use for laboratory optical experimentations. But, it was
found that laboratory-used glass, either in the form of prisms or lenses, had a very high loss
figure of about 1000 dB/Km. However, investigations also showed that this high loss was not an
intrinsic characteristic of glass but was due to the impurities that were present in the glass. In
other words, the high loss of optical energy was not due to glass molecules but was caused by the
impurities in it that remained in it during its manufacture. So, with the best possible
manufacturing technology scientists prepared purified glass which was then found to have a loss
figure of only 20 dB/Km. Although in modern days this loss is in no way small, but in early
times it was very much comparable to the other available alternatives for wide band
communication medium like the coaxial cables. Gradually, technologies improved and highly
purified glass started t o be manufactured which had very low attenuation. So, let us just have a
glimpse of this improvement in the manufacture of glass in the last fifty years. A History of
Attenuation graph is shown in the figure 2.1 below.

Fig. 2.1: History of Attenuation graph in the manufacture of glass

The above figure shows the loss profiles of manufactured glass with the best possible available
technologies in the early 1970s, 80s and 90s. As is seen, it can be clearly concluded that
manufacture of purified glass has drastically improved due to which the loss figures have
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become negligibly small in comparison to other alternatives. In the 1970s, manufactures glass
had a loss profile which showed a minimum loss at around wavelength of 800 nm (0.8m). By
the time this study of glass was going on, LASERs also were invented which used a
semiconductor material named Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) for emission of light. GaAs
intrinsically is capable of emitting light of wavelength 800nm. So, coincidently we had glass
which had minimum loss at the wavelength that was emitted by LASERs, and so it proved to be
great combination. So initial optical communications were started at 800nm wavelength region
and hence it is called as the First Window of optical communication.
As technology improved, glass was further purified and it showed a region of minimum loss at
1300nm and 1550nm regions in the 1980s as shown in figure 2.1. There was no minimum in the
800nm window and hence GaAs LASERs could not be used as sources. But in this course of
time the semiconductor material technology had also improved simultaneously and we had
sources available which could emit light both in 1300nm and the 1550nm regions. So, optical
communications were now shifted to these regions and were called as the Second Window and
Third Window of optical communication. The 1300nm window not only has low loss but also
can support high data rates. But today, most of the optical transmission take place in the 1550nm
window because though the 1300nm window had high bandwidth, it also had higher loss which
significantly affected the performance of the communication system since distances became
considerable large. The 1550nm window allows the installation of optical amplifiers at regular
distance intervals that can amplify the light in the optical domain without converting it into
electrical signal. This leads to a more reliable communication and hence today most optical
communications lie in the third window.
ADVANTAGES OF OPTICAL COMMUNICATION
Optical Communication provides an ultra-high bandwidth for communication of the order of
Terahertz (THz). This advantage meets the first requirement of a high quality reliable
communication system.
The loss figure of optical communication is very low, about 0.2 dB/Km. So this system has
high SNR values. This advantage provides a reliable communication system. No other medium
today can provide such low loss figures as optical medium.
Opticalcommunication systems have very low or even negligible electromagnetic interference
(EMI).
Optical Communication provides high security data transmission. This is because optical
signal travels through optical fibers which do not allow leakage of light energy. So tapping of
transmitted information is very difficult in optical communication.
Optical communication systems have very low manufacturing cost. Whatever cost is incurred
is only due to the technology. This is because optical medium-glass is made from silica, which is
freely abundant in nature. So, the only cost is in moulding it to a form of optical medium like
optical fiber. The cost per voice channel of an optical fiber is also very much smaller than cost
per voice channel of any other medium like coaxial cable though the two may have comparable
costs per kilometer. This is because the bandwidth of optical fiber is almost 1000 times larger

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than a coaxial cable. So, cost per channel of an optical fiber would be one thousandth of that in a
coaxial cable.
Applications where space and weight are constraints, optical fiber serves adequately because
optical fibers have low weight and low volume compared to other media.
The only flaw, if at all to be pointed out, is that optical communication is a point-to-point
communication technology. We already saw that satellite communication technology in this
regard is advantageous in that it is a broadcast type of technology. But in modern scenario where
optical fibres are reaching to every home, atleast in an urban area, information can be
broadcasted to every home in a very short time. Thus we see that optical communication has a lot
of advantages over any other mode of communication, which make it the most desirable option
for communication today. These advantages were precisely the reasons behind the rapid
developments in the field of optical communication that revolutionized itself almost every 10
years and is still in a fast pace of developments. Today, most of the networks are composed of
optical fibers using the optical networking technology. New developments to increase the
capacity of an optical communication system have also taken place such as wavelength division
multiplexing (WDM) technology.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHT
We know that light is a form of electromagnetic radiation. Basically, the nature of light depends
on the context of which we talk about. First we treat light in the context of the Ray Model and
study different phenomena based on the ray model of light. Proceeding further, when we find
the ray model is inadequate in explaining some phenomena, we depart from the ray model and
then adopt a higher model for light which is the wave-model where light is treated as an
electromagnetic wave. And in those situations where we find even the wave-model inadequate in
explain certain phenomena like interaction light with matter, we adopt the quantum model of
light where light will be treated as a photons. So we will treat light in the following three models:
RayModel
Wave Model
QuantumModel
CHARACTERIZATION OF A LIGHT SOURCE
A source of light can be characterized by the following factors:
Intensity of the light: Intensity of light is defined as the power per unit solid angle. So for a
given power of the source, if the emitted light is scattered into a very wide solid angle then the
source has low intensity. If the emitted light is confined to very narrow cone, the source appears
to be very bright because its intensity increases. This happens in case of a LASER whose light
appears to be much brighter and travels long distance than a normal 60W bulb though the power
of the LASER is much smaller than 60W. The intensity of the source is indicative of how
focused is the emitted light.
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Wavelength of Light (): The second characteristic on which a source is characterized is the
wavelength of the emitted light. The wavelength of light is indicative of the colour of the light
and so many a times it is also called as the colour of the source. The visible light lies within a
wavelength range of 400nm to 700nm. If we look into figure 2.1, we find that glass which
appears so transparent to us in daily life is not actually that transparent to wavelengths of 400nm
to 700nm. In fact, it is much more transparent to lights of wavelengths 1300nm and 1550nm,
which lie in the infrared region. Since these regions are not in the visible range, colour does not
have any meaning, yet we may retain the colour as one of the characteristic to categorize light.
Depending on the desired loss performance of the optical communication system can be chosen
either 1300nm or 1550nm. So, the choice of wavelength of transmission has a direct relation to
the SNR of the transmission.
Spectral Width of Source (): It is basically the wavelength range over which the emission
takes place. In other words, it is the range of wavelengths emitted by the source. Thus the
spectral width may be considered to be indicative of the purity of the colour of the light source.
That is, if we have a source with a wide spectral width, say for example if it emits all the
wavelengths ranging from blue to red, we get a light from the source which will look like white
light. If we reduce the spectral width to near red, we would get a sharp red colour light. If we
reduce it to near blue, we would get a blue coloured light and so on. Thus reducing the spectral
width increases the purity of the colour. Spectral width is a very important parameter of a source
because we would later discover that spectral width of a source is related to the data rate upto
which a source can be used as a transmitter of optical signal. Smaller the value of more will
be the purity of the source and also higher would be the data rate of the source. In other words,
higher will be the bandwidth of the communication system. So, the choice of has a direct
relation to the bandwidth of the transmission.
The above three characteristic treat light as sources of energy. Nowhere does the wave nature of
light is to be noticed. However to discuss the propagation of light in an optical fibre, this notion
of light as an energy source is inadequate and we have to treat light as an electromagnetic wave.
Under this adoption, if the dimensions of the medium of propagation are very large compared to
the wavelength of the light, light can be considered as a transverse electromagnetic (TEM) wave.
This means that the direction of electric field, direction of magnetic field and the direction of
propagation of light are mutually perpendicular to one another according to the right hand thumb
rule as shown in figure 2.2 (a) & (b).

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The electric and magnetic fields of light are hence related to each other through the medium
parameter which is called the intrinsic impedance of the medium. That is,
|E|

= (intrinsic impedance of medium) =

|H|

---- (2.1)

Where,
|E| = magnitude of electric field E.
|H| =magnitude of magnetic field H.
= Permeability of the medium.
= Permittivity of the medium.
So, if the electric field is known completely, the magnitude of magnetic field can be determined
using the above relation and its direction would be perpendicular to the direction of electric field.
Thus with the knowledge of electric field the magnetic field can also be determined. The
behavior of the electric field as a function of time is called the polarization of light. Polarization
is one of the very important parameters of any electromagnetic wave. It is a quantity which
illustrates the vector nature of light unlike other quantities like intensity, wavelength and spectral
width which show scalar nature of light. It shows that light is made up of varying electric and
magnetic fields which are vector quantities. If we look at the locus of the tip of the electric field
vector with respect to time, this locus gives the polarization of the wave. There may be different
shapes that the tip of the electric field vector can trace with respect to time. Based on these
shapes there are different types of polarization which are called as the states of polarization, viz.
Linear Polarization
Elliptical Polarization
Circular Polarization
Random Polarization

Fig. 2.3: Elliptical Polarization

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Linear and circular polarizations are special cases of elliptical polarization. In general, the tip of
the electric field vector traces out an ellipse and the light is then said to be elliptically polarized.
This kind of polarization is shown in figure 2.3. From the figure we can clearly see that the
electric field vector E traces out an ellipse with respect to time and so the light is said to be
elliptically polarized. However, in some special cases, this ellipse can degenerate into a circle or
a straight line and the light is then said to be circularly polarized or linearly polarized
respectively. When the major axis and the minor axis of the ellipse become equal to each other,
the locus of E would be a circle and it is then said to be circularly polarized. When either of the
major axis or the minor axis of the ellipse becomes zero, the locus of E would be a straight line
and the light is then said to be linearly polarized.
So, in general, we can say that light which is transverse electromagnetic in nature has three states
of polarization, linear, circular or elliptical. If the light does not have a systematic behavior with
respect to time, i.e. if the electric field orients itself randomly as a function of time (which may
happen in case of a light from a source with large value of ) the light is said to be randomly
polarized. In this type of polarization either the amplitude or direction of E or both varies
randomly with respect to time. Incoherent lights in general do not have any definite polarization
and are said to be randomly polarized. So, polarization is another very important characteristic
that categorizes different sources of light. It represents and illustrates the vector nature of light.
RAY-MODEL OF LIGHT
Fundamentally, we have two main aspects of the ray nature of light. Light rays actually are
fictitious lines which in reality represent the direction of propagation of what are called as phasefronts of light as shown in figure 2.4. Phase-fronts are nothing but constant phase surfaces in
which the phase difference between any two points is zero. In reality they represent the spatial
nature of propagation of a wave and hence are also called as wave-fronts. These phase-fronts
may be either spherical or planar in nature and accordingly, we get two aspects of ray nature of
light. A line drawn perpendicular to a phase front at every point gives the direction of
propagation of light energy at that point and is conventionally called as a light-ray. So, light-rays
are actually imaginary lines that determine the direction of propagation of light energy. In other
words, what we actually have is not light ray but the direction of propagation of phase-fronts of
light energy that are represented by directed line segments called light rays.

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If we have an isotropic source of light situated at finite distance, as in figure 2.4(a), we get
spherical phase-fronts because the light source would emit light in all directions and light waves
would travel spherically outwards from the source of light. If we now draw lines perpendicular to
these phase-fronts at any point, these lines would give the direction of flow of light energy at that
point and the line drawn would then be called a light ray. Due to their spherical nature, the light
waves can be called as spherical waves.
If the same source is now placed at a very large distance from the point of observation (ideally at
infinity) the wave-fronts would appear almost planar and parallel to each other as shown in
figure 2.4 (b). So the light rays too would now not look divergent, but appear parallel to each
other because they are perpendicular to the phase fronts at every point. The light waves now can
be called plane waves.
WAVE-MODEL OF LIGHT
The Wave-Model of light introduces light as an electromagnetic wave. If light is treated as an
electromagnetic wave then light must be expressible in terms of the generalized wave function,
which is given as:
, = ( )
------- (2.2)
Where, A= Amplitude of the wave.
= Angular Frequency of the wave (radian/second)
= Phase Constant (Radian/metre)
The wave function is a generalized function of space (x) and time (t). The term (t-x) is the
phase function of (x, t). Thus the phase of the wave is a function of space and time. If we now
freeze space, i.e. take x=constant or in other words observe at a particular point, we see that there
is a sinusoidal variation of the wave amplitude as a function of time having an angular frequency
of rad/s. If we freeze time, i.e. take t=constant or in other words observe the whole wave
simultaneously, we see that the amplitude of the wave has a sinusoidal variation with a phase
constant rad/m. So these two phenomena together constitute a wave phenomenon represented
by the generalized wave equation.
The phase constant is defined as the phase change per unit distance. The wavelength () of a
wave is the distance between two consecutive points on the wave which are in the same phase.
The phase difference between two points in the same phase is either zero or an integral multiple
of 2. Thus the wavelength of a wave is measured between two points that have a phase
difference of 2. Hence the phase constant can be calculated as:
=

------- (2.3)

Treating light as an electromagnetic wave, let us now define an important optical parameter of a
medium called the refractive index of the medium. Refractive index of a medium is defined as
the ratio of the velocity of light in vacuum to the velocity of light in that medium. It is denoted
by n. Since refractive index is a ratio of two velocities, it is a pure number and has no unit.
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Refractive index of medium, n(medium ) =

velocity of light in vacuum (c)

velocity of light in the medium ()

-- (2.4)

For most media, n(medium) < 1, i.e. the velocity of light reduces from its value in vacuum. In
fact, light travels fastest in vacuum and in any other medium it slows down. For example, the
refractive index of material glass is about 1.5, i.e. light travels 1.5 times faster in vacuum than in
glass. Similarly the refractive index of water is 1.33. In other words, refractive index of a
medium indicates the factor by which the speed of light reduces in the medium.
Spectral width of the source of light is the range of wavelengths that are emitted by a source of
light.
v
=f
-------- (2.5)
Where, = wavelength of light in a medium.
v = velocity of light in the medium.
f = frequency of the light under study.
The spectral width can be calculated from (2.5) as,
v
= f2 f -------- (2.6)
Or, =
Or,

f
f
f

Constructional Details of an Optical Fiber

Constructionally, an optical fiber is a solid cylindrical glass rod called the core, through which
light in the form of optical signals propagates. This rod is surrounded by another coaxial
cylindrical shell made of glass of lower refractive index called the cladding. This basic
arrangement that guides light over long distances is shown in figure.

Fig. 3.1: Constructional Details of an Optical Fiber

The diameter of the cladding is of the order of 125 m and the diameter of the core is even
smaller than that. Thus it is a very fine and brittle glass rod. In order to provide mechanical
strength to this core-cladding arrangement, other coaxial surrounding called the buffer coating
and jacketing layers are provided. They do not play any role in the propagation of light through
the optical fiber, but are present solely for providing mechanical strength and support to the
fiber.
The light energy in the form of optical signals propagates inside the core-cladding arrangement
and throughout the length of the fiber by a phenomenon called the Total Internal Reflection
(TIR) of light. This phenomenon occurs only when the refractive index of core is greater than the
refractive index of cladding and so the cladding is made from glass of lower refractive index. By
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multiple total internal reflections at the core-cladding interface the light propagates throughout
the fiber over very long distances with low attenuation.

Figure 3.2: Launching of light into an optical fiber

Figure 3.2 shows a section of the core of an optical fibre. If a ray of light is incident on the core
of an optical fibre from the side, the ray of light simply refracts out from the fibre on the other
side. The ray shown in figure (in green) demonstrates the situation. No matter what the angle of
incidence of the light is, any light that enters the fiber from the side does not propagate along the
fiber. The only option thus available with us is to launch the light through the tip of the fiber.
That is, in order to guide light along the fiber, the light must be incident from the tip of the
optical fiber. The red ray of light in figure 3.2 explains this situation. In other words, if the tip of
the optical fiber is not exposed to light, no light will enter the fiber. Equivalently, if there was
propagation of light through the fiber, no light would emerge from the sides of the fiber. This
characteristic of the optical fiber imparts the advantage of information security to the Optical
Fiber Communication Technology.
For explaining propagation of light in an optical fiber, the Ray-Model of light is be used. The
Ray-Model of light obeys the Snells laws. Following figure depicts a situation of a typical
refraction phenomenon taking place at the interface of two optically different media having
refractive indices n1and n2.

Figure 3.3: Refraction of light at a media interface

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The angles measured in the expression for Snells law are measured with respect to the normal to
the media interface at the point of incidence. If n2 > n1 , then the angle of refraction is greater
than the angle of incidence and the refracted ray is said to have moved away from the normal. If
the angle of incidence (1) is increased further, the angle of refraction (2) also increases in
accordance with the Snells law and at a particular angle of incidence the angle of refraction
becomes 90 and the refracted ray grazes along the media interface. This angle of incidence is
called the critical angle of incidence ( c) of medium2 with respect to medium1. The same
optically denser medium may have different critical angles with respect to different optically
rarer media. If 1 is increased beyond the critical angle, there exists no refracted ray and the
incident light ray is then reflected back into the same medium. This phenomenon is called the
total internal reflection of light. The word total signifies that the entire light energy that was
incident on the media interface is reflected back into the same medium. Total Internal Reflection
(TIR) obeys the laws of reflection of light. This phenomenon shows that light energy can be
made to remain confined in the same medium when the angle of incidence is greater than the
angle of reflection. Thus there are two basic requirements for a TIR to occur:
1. The medium from which light is incident, must be optically denser than the medium to which
it is incident.
2. The angle of incidence in the denser medium must be greater than the critical angle of the
denser medium with respect to the rarer medium.
LAUNCHING OF LIGHT INTO AN OPTICAL FIBER
Light propagates inside an optical fiber by virtue of multiple TIRs at the core-cladding interface.
The refractive index of the core glass is greater than that of the cladding. This meets the first
condition for a TIR. All the light energy that is launched into the optical fiber through its tip does
not get guided along the fiber. Only those light rays propagate through the fiber which are
launched into the fiber at such an angle that the refracted ray inside the core of the optical fiber is
incident on the core-cladding interface at an angle greater than the critical angle of the core with
respect to the cladding. Figure 3.4 shows one of the possibilities of launching light into an
optical fiber where the light ray lies in a plane containing the axis of the optical fiber. Such
planes which contain the fiber axis are called meridional-planes and consequently the rays lying
in a meridional-plane are called meridional-rays. Meridional rays always remain in the respective
meridional plane.

Figure 3.4: Launching of Meridional Rays

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There may be infinite number of planes that pass through the axis of the fiber and consequently
there are an infinite number of meridional planes. This indirectly indicates that there are an
infinite number of meridional rays too, which are incident on the tip of the fiber making an angle
with the fiber-axis as shown in the above figure. In the figure the meridional plane is the plane of
the paper which passes through the axis of the fiber and the incident rays, refracted rays and the
reflected rays lie on the plane of the paper. Meridional rays are classified into bound and
unbound rays. The rays that undergo TIR inside the fiber core remain inside the core at all times
along the propagation and are called as bound rays. The rays that fail to undergo TIR inside the
core are lost into the cladding and are called unbound rays. The dotted ray shown in figure 3.4 is
an unbound meridional ray.
Another way of launching a light ray into an optical fiber is to launch it in such a way that it does
not lie in any meridional plane. These rays are called skew rays. A pictorial representation of
launching a skew ray is shown in the figure 3.5 below.

Figure 3.5: Launching of Skew Rays

Skew rays propagate without passing through the central axis of the fiber. In fact the skew rays
go on spiraling around the axis of the optical fiber. The light energy carried by them is
effectively confined to an annular region around the axis as shown in figure. Consequently, at the
output, skew rays will have minimum energy at the axis of the optical fiber and it will gradually
increase towards the periphery of the core.
Thus when light energy is launched into an optical fiber, there arises two possible energy
distributions; one, which has maximum intensity at the axis due to meridional rays and the other,
which has minimum intensity at the axis due to the skew rays. Thus, on the whole, there are two
ways of launching light into an optical fiber; light can be launched either as meridional or as
skew rays.

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Assuming that light is launched as meridional rays into the optical fiber, let us now carry out a
simple analysis. The figure shows a cross-section of an optical fiber with a core of refractive
index n1 and a cladding of refractive index n2. The incident ray AO (shown by dotted line) is
incident at an angle with the axis of the fibre. The refracted ray for AO in the core (dotted line
ON1) fails to be incident on the core-cladding interface at angle greater or equal to the critical
angle of the core w.r.t. cladding and hence refracts out of the core and is lost to the cladding. In
other words, the angle of incidence of a refracted ray at the core-cladding interface in turn
depends on the initial angle at which the incoming ray was launched into the fiber. If this
launching angle (with the fiber axis) is decreased, the angle of incidence which the refracted ray
makes at the core -cladding interface increases. If this increase is such, as to exceed the critical
angle of the core-cladding interface, then total internal reflection of the refracted ray takes place
and the light remains in the core and is guided along the fiber. The ray CO is launched into the
fiber at such an angle that its refracted ray is incident at the core-cladding boundary at its
critical angle c. If any light ray is launched at an angle more than then the refracted ray just
refracts out to the cladding because the angle of incidence of its refracted ray at the core-cladding
interface is less than the critical angle. Thus the angle is indicative of the maximum possible
angle of launching of a light ray that is accepted by the fiber. Consequently, the angle is called
the angle of acceptance of the fiber core. Since the optical fiber is symmetrical about its axis, it is
very clear that all the launched rays, which make an angle with the axis, considered together,
form a sort of a cone. This cone is called the acceptance cone of the fiber as shown in the above
figure. Any launched ray that lies within this cone is accepted by the fiber and the light of this
ray is guided along the fiber by virtue of multiple TIRs as shown by the red ray BO in the figure.

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NUMERICAL APERTURE OF OPTICAL FIBER

With the same initial assumption of meridional launching of light into an optical fiber, the figure
shows a cross-section of a core of refractive index n1 and a cladding of refractive index n2 that
surrounds the core glass. An incident ray AO is incident from medium1 at the tip of the fiber
making an angle with the axis of the fiber, which is the acceptance angle of the fibre. The
refracted ray for this incident ray in the core then is incident at the core-cladding interface at the
critical angle c of the core with respect to the cladding. The angle of refraction for critical angle
of incidence is 90 and the refracted ray thus grazes along the core-cladding boundary along BC
as shown in the figure. Applying Snells law at the medium1-core interface we get:
= 1
(3.1)

From the figure it is clear that, = 2 c and so substituting this in equation (3.1), we get:
1
=
c

= 1 1 sin2 c
(3.2)
Applying Snells law at the core-cladding interface we get:
1 = 2 sin 90
= 2 /1
Substituting this in equation (3.2) we get:
=

1 2 2 2

Since the initial medium1 from which the light is launched is air most of the times, n = 1. The
angle is indicative of light accepting capability of the optical fiber. Greater the value of , more
is the light accepted by the optical fiber. In other words, the optical fiber acts as some kind of
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aperture that accepts only some amount of the total light energy incident on it. The light
accepting efficiency of this aperture is thus indicated by sin and hence this quantity is called
as the numerical aperture (N.A.) of the optical fiber. Thus for an optical fiber in air, with core
refractive index n1 and cladding refractive index n2 and having an acceptance angle of is given
by . . = sin = 1 2 2 2 .
Numerical Aperture is one of the most fundamental quantities of an optical fiber. It indicates the
light collecting efficiency of an optical fiber. More the value of N.A. better is the fiber. For
greater values of N.A. the difference on the right hand side of equation has to be maximized. For
maximizing the difference, either the refractive index of the core (n1) has to be increased or the
refractive index of the cladding (n2) has to be reduced. Since the core used is always glass, the
value of its refractive index n1 is thus fixed (approximately 1.5). The only option thus available
with us is to reduce the value of n2. But it too has a limitation of the lowest value of 1 for air
because till date no material is known which has a refractive index lower than that. If we make
n2=1, we would then get the maximum possible N.A. for an optical fiber. But then we are
basically talking about removing the cladding because, if there is a cladding, the value of n2 will
always be greater than 1. Thus one can clearly say that from the point of view of light accepting
efficiency, the presence of a cladding is undesirable.
The above discussion suggests that although the optical fiber is made of core and cladding, the
presence of cladding is undesirable because it reduces the light accepting efficiency of the optical
fiber. However, one can realize that the prime concern behind prolonged research on optical
fibers was not just to put light inside an optical fiber with the best efficiency but also to
propagate the light over long distances with the least attenuation. That means if we have a source
of optical signal and an optical fiber with the highest light accepting efficiency but is incapable
of propagating the accepted light; the optical fiber is of no use in spite of its high N.A. Thus
judging the need of a cladding just on the basis of light launching efficiency would be highly
inappropriate. In other words, light launching efficiency is just one of the key characteristic
aspects of an optical fiber. There are other attributes too which have to be given importance
while determining the quality of an optical fiber. One of such attributes of an optical fiber is its
bandwidth. Large bandwidths are desirable for high data rates of transmission.
When optical fiber is used for transmission of information, light signal launched into it cannot be
of continuous nature. For a carrier signal to carry information, one or more of its characteristics
has to be altered in accordance to the data signal. In an optical fiber light is launched in the form
of optical pulses to transmit the required information. Light energy launched into the fiber may
be considered to travel in the form of numerous rays in accordance to the Ray-Model. These rays
travel different paths inside the core of an optical fiber because different light rays are incident
on the tip of the optical fiber at different angles within the acceptance cone itself. This causes
different light rays in the acceptance cone to travel along different paths in the core of the optical
fiber and accordingly take different time intervals to travel a given distance too, which leads to
a phenomenon of pulse broadening inside the core of the optical fiber. Thus the pulse of light
which might originally be of width T seconds now might be of T+T seconds inside the fiber
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core. The figure 3.9 below depicts a pictorial description of how light pulse broadens inside the
core of the fiber.

Figure 3.9: Pulse-Broadening inside optical fiber core

Any incident ray that lies within the acceptance cone gets guided inside the optical fiber by
virtue of multiple total internal reflections. Since the angle of refraction different incident rays
are different, they travel along different paths in the optical fiber as shown in the above figure.
This causes the initially launched narrow light pulse to broaden as shown. The amount of
broadening is measured in terms of the increase in the pulse time width and is denoted by T. the
value of T is given by:
T =

L n 1 (n 1 n 2 )
c

n2

(3.6)

Where, T= Pulse Broadening; c = velocity of light in free space; n1= refractive index of core
and n2= refractive index of the cladding.
The quantity L is the horizontal distance travelled before suffering the first total internal
reflection by the refracted ray OB which corresponds to the incident ray AO, incident at the
acceptance angle as shown in the figure. The amount of pulse broadening is effectively the
difference in time of travel between the ray travelling along the axis and the incident ray AO.
This pulse broadening effect signifies that if a second pulse is now launched into the fiber within
the time interval T+T, the two pulses will overlap and no identifiable data would be obtained
on the output. Thus for a given length L, there would be a corresponding value of T (from
equation 3.6) which would limit the rate at which light pulses can be launched into the optical
fiber. In other words, it limits the rate at which data can be transmitted along the fiber. This
indirectly limits the bandwidth available o n the fiber. Thus we can say that more the pulse
broadening lower the bandwidth.
Bandwidth (BW) = 1/T
(3.7)
Equation 3.7 suggests that for higher bandwidth of transmission the pulse broadening, T should
be as low as possible. In equation 3.6, we see that the value of T is dependent on the value of L,
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the difference (n1 n2) as well as the value of n1/n2. But reducing the value of L would signify
the reduction in the length of the optical fiber, which is not desirable. As 1<n2<n1, the ratio,
n1/ n2 is very close to 1. Thus for low T values, the only option is to decrease the value (n1n2)
or in other words, to increase the refractive index of the cladding n2. So a contradictory situation
has been generated as to whether the cladding should be removed for high NA or to use a
cladding of large refractive index value for higher bandwidth. The answer to this query is purely
application specific. That means if an optical fiber is used as a sensor, where lowest possible
light has to be accepted, we use fiber with low n2 values. When the optical fiber is used for data
communication, fibers with high values of n2 are used. For practical communication purposes
the value of (n1 n2) is made of the order of about 10-3 to 10 -4. If the cladding is removed, the
value of n2 becomes 1 and the value of the above difference becomes about 0.5. The bandwidth
corresponding to this value of n1- n2 is of the order of few Kilohertz, which is far worse than
that of a normal twisted pair of wires. Thus cladding is an extremely important requirement for
optical fiber when the bandwidth is the prime concern of the application and its refractive index
is made as close to that of the core as the available technology permits, but not made equal. This
is brought about by varying the amount of doping in a single glass rod. The differently doped
regions have different refractive indices and serve as core and cladding of the optical fiber.
PHASE-FRONT (WAVE-FRONT) BASED STUDY OF TIR
Wave-fronts are nothing but the constant phase planes of the light wave and are also called as
phase-fronts. They are perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the wave at every point.
Any light ray launched meridional within the acceptance cone will propagate along the fiber core
by virtue of multiple total internal reflections at the core-cladding interface. Thus in accordance
to the ray-model of light we may visualize a solid cone of light (having angle = double the
acceptance angle) that enters an optical fiber and propagates through the fiber by TIRs. Figure
3.10 below shows the phenomenon of total internal reflection of a ray of light at the corecladding boundary along with the wave-fronts of the incident and the reflected rays. The red and
green coloured dotted lines represent the wave fronts of the light rays which are perpendicular to
their direction of propagation. The light rays, actually, are fictitious lines which, in reality,
represent the direction of propagation of these wave-fronts.

Figure 3.10: Total Internal Reflection of Light inside a fiber core.

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The distance between a red and a green wave-front corresponds to a phase difference of 180.
The similar coloured wave-fronts have either 0 or 360 phase difference between them. Thus,
when two similar coloured wave-fronts meet, they interfere constructively and dissimilar
coloured wave-fronts interfere destructively. This is evident from the interference pattern that
sets up in the core as shown in the above figure. In the core, the interference between the incident
and the reflected wave-fronts constitutes a standing wave pattern of varying light intensity with
discrete maxima and minima in a direction normal to the core-cladding interface.
Total internal reflection is also accompanied by an abrupt phase change between the incident and
the reflected rays at the core-cladding boundary. This phase change depends on the angle of
incidence of the incident ray at the core-cladding boundary, the refractive index or the core and
cladding and various other parameters.
If we refer to the electromagnetic wave theory of light, it shows that at total internal reflection,
the light intensity inside the cladding is not completely zero. Instead, there exist some decaying
fields in the cladding, which do not carry any power but support the total internal reflection
phenomenon by satisfying the boundary conditions at the core-cladding interface. These fields
are called as evanescent fields. The Ray-model of light does not offer any explanation about the
evanescent fields, which indeed are as equally important as the fields in the core for total internal
reflection to occur. The importance of these evanescent fields in the TIR can be clearly
ascertained from the fact that even the slightest disturbance to these fields in the cladding could
lead to the failure of the TIR at the core -cladding boundary accompanied by leakage of optical
power to the cladding. This is one of the instances when the ray-model of light becomes
inadequate in explaining the phenomena exhibited by light. Though the evanescent fields are
decaying fields, they never become zero, atleast theoretically. In other words, they remain
present upto infinite distance from the core-cladding boundary. But in practice, these fields
decay down to a negligibly small value as we move away from the core-cladding boundary
deeper into the cladding. Larger the value of the angle of incidence of the incident ray at the
core-cladding boundary, sharper is the decay of the evanescent fields. Thus there must me a
sufficient thickness of cladding provided for these evanescent fields to be accommodated so that
they decay to a negligibly small value in the cladding and cannot be disturbed by external
sources.
Figure 3.11 below shows two parallel rays that are launched into an optical fiber and they
propagate as shown. The dotted lines represent the wave-fronts of the rays. The refractive indices
of core and cladding are n1 and n2 respectively. The diameter of the core isd. The phase-front
AE is common to both Ray 1 and Ray 2. The phase -front DB is common to Ray 2 and BF. The
Ray 2 is thus common to both the phase-fronts. Hence for a sustained constructive interference,
the distance between these two phase-fronts must be multiples of 2. In other words, it can be
said that the phase difference between the phase change undergone by Ray 1 in travelling
distance s1 and the Ray 2 in travelling s2 must be 0 or integral multiples of 2 .
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Figure 3.11: Propagation of Light rays in an Optical fiber

Mathematically,
1 =

(3.8)

2 = =

( 2 2 )

(3.9)

If is the phase change undergone in each TIR of Ray 1, then the total phase change undergone
by Ray 1 in travelling s1 is given by
1 =

2 1

1 + 2

(3.10)

Where n1 = refractive index of core; = Wavelength of the light in the core.

The phase change undergone by Ray 2 in travelling s2 is given by
2 =

2 1

(3.11)

For a sustained constructive interference, both 1 and 2 must have a phase difference of either
0 or integral multiples of 2. That is, for an integer m (=0,1,2,3,) the following condition must
be satisfied:
1 2 = 2
21
1 2 + 2 = 2

2 1
+ =
(3.12)

The significance of the equation 3.12 is that only those rays, which are incident on the tip of the
fiber at angles such that their angle of refraction in the core satisfies equation (3.12), can
successfully travel along the fiber. In equation (3.12), m can take only discrete integral values,
the value of angle is also discrete. There are only some discrete launching angles within the
acceptance cone (N.A. cone) for which the rays can propagate inside the fiber core. A 3D
visualization reveals the significance of this observation, i.e. the acceptance cone can no longer
be assumed as a solid cone of rays, launched at all possible angles (smaller than acceptance
angle), but has to be viewed as composed of discrete annular conical rings of rays which are
launched at the tip of the fiber core at angles which satisfy equation (3.12). Thus the condition
that the launching angle of the incident ray should be within the acceptance cone is necessary but
not sufficient. This angle has to be such that the equation (3.12) is satisfied. Thus light can only
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be launched at certain discrete angles within the N.A. cone leading to a further decrease in the
light gathering efficiency of the optical fiber. Any ray that is not launched at these discrete
angles will not propagate inside the optical fiber. This discretization in the values of launching
angles lead to formation of what are called as modes in an optical fiber, which are nothing but
different patterns of light intensity distribution around the axis of the core.

Figure: Annular rings of different modes

The number of different values of m signifies the number of different possible launching angles
which can successfully propagate in the optical fiber core. The ray that is launched along the axis
of the fiber propagates without any phase condition requirement to be satisfied and corresponds
to the first mode of propagation, also called as the zero order mode of propagation. This is shown
by m=0 in the figure above and few other modes are shown by their respective annular rings
represented by different colours. There may be N possible modes of propagation for which the
rays successfully travel along the fiber creating unique light intensity patterns around the axis of
the core. The number allowable values of m depend on the acceptance angle of the optical
fiber. This is because although there are infinite integral values of m (according to equation
3.12) only those modes would propagate along the fiber whose launching angles lie within the
N.A. cone of the fiber. Any ray that is launched outside this cone does not propagate along the
fiber although it might correspond to a particular mode. This is shown in the figure above by the
ray AO. This ray simply refracts out of the core because its angle of incidence at the corecladding interface is smaller than the critical angle of the core with respect to the cladding. Thus
the N.A. cone can no longer be assumed as a solid cone of rays, but has to be viewed as
composed of annular rings of rays which correspond to particular modes of propagation that
satisfy basic phase conditions. In other words, the optical fiber too is selective in accepting only
those rays which satisfy the basic phase conditions and the other rays are rejected by the fiber
although they may lie within the acceptance cone of the fiber. Thus there are only a finite
number of modes that are allowed in an optical fiber and the other modes are rejected. This
leads to a further decrease in the light accepting efficiency of fiber.

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Let us reconsider the propagation of the rays in the optical fiber in relevance to wave theory of
light. Treating light a transverse electromagnetic wave, we find that when meridional rays
propagate along the fiber, their electric and magnetic fields of all the rays superimpose to result
in electric and magnetic field distribution which may be either transverse electric (TEx) or
transverse magnetic (TMx) in nature. The subscript x denotes the definite number of maxima
and minima in the resultant light intensity pattern. The propagation of skew rays, on the other
hand, results in a particularly special form of modes which are neither TE nor TM in nature
and are called as Hybrid modes. When we refer to modal propagation in dielectric waveguides,
we find that unlike metallic waveguides, there is a special set of modes that exists in a dielectric
waveguide in addition to TE and TM modes. This set of modes is called as hybrid mode. The
optical fiber is actually a cylindrical dielectric waveguide and so it can exhibit hybrid modes as
well. Rigorous analysis shows that hybrid mode is in fact the lowest order mode that can
propagate in an optical fiber. Since hybrid mode is the lowest order mode, it can be analytically
shown that the mode of the ray that propagates in the fiber along the axis is hybrid in nature.
Let us now have a glimpse of the different types of modes that propagate inside an optical fiber
which may be TEx, TMx, or hybrid in nature. Figure below shows different intensity patterns
created by superposition of the wave-fronts of all the light rays for Transverse Electric modes
that propagate in an optical fiber.

Figure: Different TE modes in an optical fiber

The fields that are shown in the cladding region are actually the evanescent fields that exist in the
cladding owing to the boundary condition requirement at the core-cladding interface. For very
low launching angles with respect to the axis of the fiber, the intensity pattern created is the one
which is shown by TE0 in the above figure. There exists a maximum intensity region around the
axis of the core and as we move towards the periphery of the core the fields start to decay. These
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fields eventually decay down to negligibly low value in the cladding as shown in the figure. If
the launching angle is increased further, we get the intensity patterns as that shown for TE1 and
TE2 in the above figure. The subscript of TE in fact indicates the number of destructive
interferences in the pattern where the field intensity crosses the zero level, or in other words,
creates an optically dark area. So, for TE0 we have no dark area, for TE1 we have one dark area
at the axis, for TE2 we have two dark areas and so on. This situation is well obvious from the
above figure which shows the number of times the field intensity pattern crosses the zero level
corresponding to the subscript of TE. This subscript is also termed as the index of the mode. As
we further increase the launching angle with respect to the axis, more zeros are crossed and we
get the higher indices of the mode. The above discussion is also true for TM mode as well.
The ray-model of light showed us that launching angle of the light ray must be smaller than the
acceptance angle of the optical fiber core. But the consideration of the wave-fronts showed us
that this condition of the launching angle is not enough to ensure a successful propagation of
light in an optical fiber. The launching angle must be such that the angle of refraction of the
launched ray into the fiber must satisfy the phase condition of equation 3.12 for sustained
propagation inside the optical fiber core.
2 1

+ =

(m=0,1,2,3,)

The different discrete values of the angle indirectly signify the different allowable launching
angles of the light rays into the optical fiber. If we substitute the first value of m (i.e. m=0) in the
above equation we get =0. This refers to the ray that propagates along the axis. This ray will
inevitably propagate inside the fiber because it does not require any phase condition to be
satisfied. Let us now substitute the next integral value of m to obtain the first order mode.
We get:
( )
1 = 1
21
This value of 1 signifies the first annular ring of rays that propagates inside the fiber. Similarly
we may obtain the other modes that propagate in the fiber by subsequent substitution of the
corresponding values of m until the condition is reached, where is the N.A. of the fiber
core.
When a pulse of light is aligned onto the tip of the optical fiber core, the light energy in the pulse
divides into numerous rays which become incident on the tip of the optical fiber core. But only
those rays propagate which satisfy both the requirements for a successful propagation of light in
the core. Yet there numerous rays that enter the optical fiber core at all the allowed launching
angles. This causes different rays to travel by different paths which indeed lead to pulse
broadening of light in the core. Pulse broadening is also referred to as dispersion and is greatly
an undesirable phenomenon because it reduces the bandwidth of the fiber. The pulse broadening
is caused by the time delay in between the axially launched ray and the ray corresponding to the
largest order mode possible in the optical fiber because it is the largest order mode that travels
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the longest path inside the fiber. If we do not allow any mode to get launched into the fiber
except the axial ray, this would ideally lead to a zero pulse broadening.
The propagation of next mode and the subsequent modes depends on many parameters. If by any
means of variation in these parameters we could make >, the ray corresponding to this will
not get launched into the fiber. The different parameters that we can possibly vary are the
refractive index (n1) of core and the diameter of the core (d) for a given wavelength of light ().
But the refractive index n1 cannot be varied because we have already chosen the material glass
for the core which has a fixed refractive index of about 1.5. This leaves us with only one option
and that is to vary the diameter of the core. If we reduce the diameter of the core to a very low
value such that 1 exceeds the numerical aperture of the fiber core, then the rays corresponding
to this 1 cannot be launched into the fiber. Thus only the axial ray would be launched and any
higher mode would not be launched into the fiber thereby reducing the pulse broadening effect to
a negligibly low value. These types of fibers which allow only a single mode of light to
propagate inside them are called as Single Mode Optical Fibers (SMOF). And the optical fibers
which allow the propagation of multiple modes are called as Multimode Optical Fibers (MMOF).
Thus it is obvious that SMOF have very low pulse broadening in comparison to MMOF and thus
have higher bandwidths. But MMOF have higher N.A. than SMOF. SMOF and MMOF are also
called as step-index type optical fibers because the transition from cladding refractive index n2 to
core refractive index n1or vice versa is in the form of a step function.
By reducing the diameter of the core of the optical fiber, the pulse broadening can be decreased
and thus its bandwidth can be increased. That is why almost for all practical data communication
purposes single mode optical fibers are used. Though SMOF have high bandwidths, they have a
very low N.A. value, which makes it very difficult to launch light into a single mode optical
fiber. First of all, the source of light has to have a highly directional beam and secondly, the fiber
core has to be carefully aligned to the source. The slightest disturbance to this arrangement
would prevent any available light to enter the fiber even with a highly directional optical source.
Hence LASER like sources are used in case of single mode optical fibers.
LASERs have highly directional beams which are apt for SMOF. The only trouble is to align the
fiber to the LASER source and prevent any external disturbance to the arrangement. On the other
hand, MMOF, on account of their high N.A., accept large percentage of the incident light. Even
LEDs could serve as a source in case of MMOF because they do not require highly directional
sources.
Single mode optical fibers attain their high bandwidth at cost of light gathering efficiency. The
obvious question that may come is that, is it possible to make a multimode fiber to have both
high N.A. and low pulse broadening (or high bandwidth). The answer to this query again can be
derived from the very cause of the pulse broadening effect. All the rays of light for a given
wavelength propagate with the same velocity inside the core of the optical fiber. This causes
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different rays to take different time intervals to propagate a particular length of the fiber because
they travel along different paths. The axially launched ray thus takes the lowest time to travel
and the rays corresponding to the largest allowed mode take the largest amount of time because
they travel the longest distance inside the fiber and suffer the most number of total internal
reflections. This difference in the time intervals is in fact the pulse broadening T. If by some
means all the rays could be made to travel with different velocities so that they all take the same
time to travel a given length of the optical fiber, we could achieve our goal of having a
multimode optical fiber with high N.A. and low pulse broadening. This means that we have to
make the rays which travel the longest distance travel with the fastest velocity and the other rays
to travel with correspondingly lower velocities with the axial ray having the lowest velocity. To
achieve this we can refer back to the basic definition of refractive index of a material which says:
Refractive index of medium, n(medium ) =

velocity of light in vacuum (c)

velocity of light in the medium ()

The above definition signifies that light travels faster in materials with lower refractive index.
That is, if we make the axial ray to travel through a region of highest refractive index so that it
travels with the lowest velocity and make the other rays to travel through regions of decreasing
refractive indices whose refractive indices decrease in the same proportion as the increase in
their distance of travel, then all the rays would travel with almost equal velocity along the axis
and thus would take the same time to travel a given length of a fiber. We actually are suggesting
of creating some sort of refractive index gradient that is symmetrical around the axis such that
the refractive index is maximum at the axis and it gradually decreases as we move towards the
periphery of the core and again constant in the cladding. This type of index grading is shown in
figure below. The way in which the launched rays would travel in such a fiber is also shown in
the figure.

The maximum refractive index of the core is at the axis of the optical fiber and it decreases
gradually towards the periphery of the core and then in the cladding it is constant at n2. These
types of fibers are called Graded Index Optical Fibers (GIOF). The axial ray travels through a
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region of highest refractive index compared to the rest of the core and hence travels with the
lowest velocity. The velocities of the rays increase as their lateral displacement from the axis
increase because they encounter regions of lower refractive index. This causes them to travel
together without any delay between themselves and thus reduce the pulse broadening to a
considerably low value. The perfect profiling of the refractive index has not yet been possible
practically. Hence the delay between the rays is never practically zero though it may be very
small. So, GIOFs are not as better in bandwidth as SMOF but do have higher N.A. than SMOFs.
This is why, where light gathering is more a concern over bandwidth, GIOFs becomes the
appropriate choice. GIOFs are obviously better than MMOFs in terms of bandwidth.
Index Profile and Cross-sectional View of different types of fibers

Single mode fibers are the best choice when distance of communication is very large and also the
bandwidth requirement is the primary concern (for example in long distance high-speed
communications like WAN etc.). It has the best dispersion performance out of the three and
hence has the highest bandwidth out of the three. Next to single mode fibers is the multimode
graded index optical fiber which has N.A. higher than single mode fiber but its dispersion
performance is about 10 times poorer than that of a single mode fiber. Applications where the
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distance of communication is short and the designer does not want to sacrifice much on the light
gathering efficiency, this type of optical fibers appropriately serve the purpose (for example in
local area communications like LANs, Intranet etc.). Multimode step index fibers are used in
laboratory demonstrations because though they have high N.A., their dispersion performance too
poor to be of any use in communication. They may be used in optical sensors for their high
N.A., but have very limited range of applications.

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